Margaret Constantine

Introduction

Margaret Constantine is a former UK nurse whose registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) was removed by a striking-off order in September 2026, after a review hearing examined her fitness to practise more than six years on from the incident at the heart of the case. The striking-off order took effect at the end of 14 October 2026. The case concerns a medical emergency on 1 August 2020: a panel previously proved charges that she failed to commence or assist cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and failed to obtain, use or assist others to use a defibrillator. The September 2026 hearing did not re-examine that conduct; it reviewed the suspension order that had resulted from it and concluded that the register could no longer carry her name. Hers is a clinical-failure case rather than a dishonesty or conviction case, and the sanction is the most serious available to the regulator: erasure from the register, meaning she is no longer permitted to practise nursing in the United Kingdom.

Background Information

Constantine was a nurse registered with the NMC, identified in the determination by the reference 20A0738O. The published record of the case is sparse about her career: it does not name her employer, does not give her location, and does not describe her clinical specialism or length of service. What it does record is a regulatory history. At some earlier stage, a panel proved charges arising from a medical emergency on 1 August 2020 — failing to commence or assist CPR, and failing to obtain, use or assist others to use a defibrillator — and the sanction then imposed was a suspension order. That order was what brought her back before the regulator in September 2026, because NMC sanctions of this kind are subject to review: a reviewing panel can extend a suspension, replace it with a lesser or different order, or, where impairment persists and nothing has changed, impose a striking-off order. Her review hearing opened on 11 September 2026, and the decision was issued the same day.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated vs. alleged. The emergency-care findings against Margaret Constantine — failing to commence or assist CPR and failing to obtain, use or assist others to use a defibrillator during a medical emergency on 1 August 2020 — were made by the NMC’s Fitness to Practise Committee, which proved the charges after a hearing; they are regulator findings, not criminal convictions, and no criminal allegation is recorded on this page.

The proved charges concerned a medical emergency on 1 August 2020. The first was failing to commence or assist cardiopulmonary resuscitation; the second was failing to obtain, use or assist others to use a defibrillator. Both go to the most basic expectations placed on a nurse in the United Kingdom. CPR and defibrillation are the standard first-line responses to cardiac arrest, and a registrant who encounters a medical emergency is expected to commence or assist resuscitation and to obtain or enable the use of a defibrillator where that is what the situation demands; a failure to do either is treated not as a matter of individual judgement but as a lapse in fundamental patient care. The charges were proved at the original hearing, and the resulting suspension order is what the Fitness to Practise Committee returned to consider at the review. The determination records the outcome of the review but does not set out the underlying evidence in detail, so what can be stated here is confined to the charges as proved and the findings attached to them.

Public Reaction and Consequences

No public or media reaction to the case is recorded on the determination page, so the consequences that matter are the panel’s. At the review, the Committee found Constantine’s fitness to practise to remain impaired on both public protection and public interest grounds. It found no material change in the circumstances that had led to the earlier sanction, and no evidence of developing insight or remediation — in the MedicWatch summary, no evidence that the earlier concerns had been addressed. It further found a continuing risk of repetition. Weighing those findings, it concluded that further suspension would serve no useful purpose: another period of suspension would neither protect the public beyond the removal of her registration nor serve the public interest in confidence in the profession. The panel therefore replaced the suspension with a striking-off order, the only outcome left where suspension has been exhausted without change, effective at the end of 14 October 2026 to allow for the appeal period.

Current Status

Constantine is struck off the NMC register. The decision date is 11 September 2026, and the striking-off order took effect at the end of 14 October 2026; the outcome is recorded on the MedicWatch page as erasure, the register term for removal. Erasure means she is no longer a registered nurse and may not practise as one in the United Kingdom. The MedicWatch page carries a data-checked date of 22 September 2026 and directs readers to check the official NMC register for the practitioner’s current registration status, since the determination records the decision and its effective date rather than the live state of the register. The page also notes that the decision explains any appeal provisions; no appeal is recorded in the published summary.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The striking-off order ends Constantine’s career as a nurse in the United Kingdom. Removal from the register is permanent in practical terms — a nurse erased for impairment can seek restoration only through the regulator’s processes, and the review panel’s finding that there was no evidence of developing insight or remediation, and no material change, marks the distance between her position in September 2026 and any return. The panel’s reasoning also fixed the character of the case for her professionally: the concerns were not about paperwork, conduct outside work, or health, but about what she did and did not do during a medical emergency, and the finding of a continuing risk of repetition meant the panel could not be satisfied that a return to practice would be safe. The record is otherwise silent about her life beyond the register — no employer is named, no personal circumstances are described — so the measurable impact is the loss of registration itself, effective from the end of 14 October 2026.

Sources

• MedicWatch, “NMC orders Margaret Constantine’s striking off after emergency-care review,” September 11, 2026 — source